This easy Instant Pot venison roast is cooked with potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms for a comforting winter meal. Pressure cooking the meat results in a tender, pull apart texture that sits in a delicious red wine balsamic sauce.
There are few other meals more comforting and cozy for winter than a tender, juicy, fall-apart roast and that’s exactly what this Instant Pot venison roast is.
Bathed in red wine balsamic sauce with fresh rosemary and thyme it’s as flavorful as it is aromatic. Better yet, the potatoes and vegetables to serve with it are cooked right in the Instant Pot as well. It’s a one pot meal that trumps all others!
I first tasted venison in 8th grade at a New Year’s Eve party with my best friend at the time. We were at her parents’ friends’ house and while I have zero recollection of what we did that night 25 years later, I do vividly remember tasting the venison appetizer on the table.
Spoiler: I was not a fan.
Because of that first impression, I avoided any chance to try venison again for many, many years.
In fact, I think my first taste after that time at 13 was actually about 5 or 6 years ago.
I was at the gym and someone was offering extra venison sausage from their successful hunting season.
I happily took the opportunity for free food (how can you say no to meat as local as that?!) and remember loving that venison sausage.
The problem with venison is it’s almost impossible to find unless you know someone that hunts.
My husband does not hunt.
Heck, he wouldn’t even shoot the stupid woodpecker who was singlehandedly destroying all the trim on our house with a BB gun let alone shoot a deer.
Luckily, my brother and his friends do and this venison roast was one of three cuts he so lovingly gifted me this year from the buck a friend of his shot last season. He also supplies me with ample American woodcock that’s like bird-candy when seared — I’m a lucky sister.
You may be able to find ground venison more easily and if that’s the case, try these baked venison meatballs instead!
I’ll admit, this roast was the last cut I decided to cook not being nearly as excited about it as I was the flank and venison backstrap he had given me.
But, the assumption that the roast would be my least favorite was definitely a misguided one.
You know what they say…
Since venison can be quite a bit leaner than other roasts, I decided pressure cooking in the Instant Pot was the perfect method.
It makes quick work of bigger, tough cuts of meat and has this amazing ability to convert them into tender, fall-apart, melt in your mouth kinds of dishes.
And what it did for this venison roast with some red wine, beef broth and balsamic vinegar was just that.
HOW TO MAKE VENISON ROAST IN THE INSTANT POT
You’ll need the following ingredients for this easy, one-pot venison roast meal:
- 2 – 2.5 pound venison roast
- avocado oil
- salt and pepper
- red wine
- beef broth
- balsamic vinegar
- fresh rosemary
- fresh thyme
- baby potatoes
- carrots
- mushrooms
- onion
There are two steps to making the full meal.
Step 1 is searing and cooking the venison roast in the Instant Pot.
Step 2 is adding the potatoes and vegetables to the Instant Pot to finish cooking.
While step 2 is optional if you only want to make the venison roast itself, it’s an extra 12 minutes of cooking and the result is a complete meal that will feed the family!
STEP 1 – BROWN & COOK THE VENISON ROAST
Season the roast liberally with salt and pepper.
Add the avocado oil to the Instant Pot on sauté mode. Once hot, place the venison roast in the Instant Pot and sear until browned on all sides.
This will take about 10 minutes to get a nice golden brown on each side but it’s so worth it for the extra flavor it brings to the finished roast.
Once browned, add the red wine, broth and balsamic vinegar along with the rosemary and thyme.
Place the lid on the Instant Pot setting the valve to the “sealing” position and cook on the Meat/Stew mode for 70 minutes.
Quick release the pressure when done cooking and remove the lid.
STEP 2: ADD THE POTATOES & VEGETABLES
Add the prepared potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms to the Instant Pot along with the roast.
Replace the lid, set the valve to “sealing” again and cook on manual mode for another 12 minutes.
Quick release the pressure when done cooking. Transfer the roast to a cutting board and let it sit for 10 minutes before slicing.
To serve, plate the sliced roast and scatter the potatoes and vegetables around it on a serving platter.
Spoon a good portion of the sauce from the Instant pot on top of the roast and pour the rest into a bowl or gravy boat for serving.
I initially hemmed and hawed over purchasing an Instant Pot a few years back but recipes like this are what make it totally worthwhile.
Its ability to take big pieces of meat (even tough ones like venison can be) and turn them into succulent finished dishes like this is truly an impressive feat.
Along with my Instant Pot coconut pork and Instant Pot brisket, this pressure cooked venison roast is now an all-time favorite.
And while this veal brisket is braised in the oven rather than using a pressure cooker, if this roast speaks to you I think you’ll also love that recipe.
Next up, I want to try a venison stew and this one looks amazing. Now I just need a consistent and reliable venison source!
Don’t have access to venison? Try Instant Pot pot roast and use beef instead.
You can also check out my web story for how to make venison roast in the Instant Pot for more details on this recipe!
MORE RECIPES LIKE THIS TO TRY:
Instant Pot Beef and Mushroom Stew
Slow Cooker Lamb Stew
Instant Pot Bolognese
Balsamic Dijon Crusted Beef Tenderloin
Butterflied Leg of Lamb with Cranberry Goat Cheese Stuffing
Instant Pot Venison Roast
Ingredients
- 1 tablespoon avocado oil
- 2 pound venison roast
- salt and pepper
- 1 cup red wine
- 1/2 cup beef broth
- 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 3 sprigs fresh rosemary
- 5 sprigs fresh thyme
- 1 1/2 pounds baby potatoes, scrubbed but left whole
- 1/2 pound carrots, roughly chopped into 1 to 1.5″ pieces
- 1 medium red onion, roughly chopped
- 8 ounces crimini mushrooms, halved
Instructions
- Place avocado oil in the insert of the Instant Pot and turn to Sauté mode.
- Liberally season the venison roast with salt and pepper on all sides. Once hot, add the roast to the Instant Pot and brown on all sides.
- Turn the Instant Pot off, add the red wine, broth, balsamic vinegar and herbs.
- Place the lid on the Instant Pot, set the valve to the "sealing" position and cook on Meat/Stew mode for 70 minutes.
- After 70 minutes, quick release the pressure, open the lid and add the potatoes, carrots, onions and mushrooms.
- Close the lid again, reset the valve to "sealing" and set on Manual mode for 12 minutes.
- Quick release the pressure and remove the venison from the Instant Pot. Let rest on a cutting board for 5-10 minutes before slicing.
- Place the sliced venison on a serving platter and scatter the vegetables around it. Spoon the red wine sauce from the bottom of the Instant Pot on top of the venison and transfer any additional sauce to a small bowl or gravy boat for serving.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Gina Matsoukas is an AP syndicated writer. She is the founder, photographer and recipe developer of Running to the Kitchen — a food website focused on providing healthy, wholesome recipes using fresh and seasonal ingredients. Her work has been featured in numerous media outlets both digital and print, including MSN, Huffington post, Buzzfeed, Women’s Health and Food Network.
I didn’t have any wine but I did have homemade grape juice (which is quite terrible all by itself, but good for cooking). I didn’t have mushrooms and forgot to use the balsamic vinegar. I used Irish butter along with the olive oil. Even after all this, the stew turned out fabulous! The venison is tender, the potatoes and carrots are perfect. It is SOOO good!
This timing worked as well with a 3# bone-in venison thigh as 2#, and I’m pleased to say the wine didn’t go strange (I’ve heard it can, under pressure). A pleasant meal, with hands-off time to make a yogurt-dressed Waldorf salad for the fresh component.
If fresh rosemary and thyme aren’t available (say, there’s a foot of snow outside and you’ve already taken all you dare off your rosemary for the next month or two), 1 tsp dried crumbled rosemary and 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme worked well.